"Rear Admiral Gaspard, this place looks pretty good. It seems the navy here is quite responsible?"
"Who can say that? Besides, they said you don't need to wear rank insignia when you're out, just call me by my name. Didn't you work as an undercover agent for the pirates? How come you can't remember things like that?"
"Um... when I was undercover, my identity was that of a mute."
"."
If Rosinante hadn't created the persona of being mute, his exposure would likely have happened much earlier.
"Forget it, there's not much of a person around now. Just be careful when there are people around. If you really can't remember, just pretend you're still on an undercover mission and continue to be mute."
Gaspard didn't make any demands on the other party. It was such a small matter, and he didn't want to argue with someone who had connections in the Warring States period.
Moreover, aside from the issue of address, Gaspardi agrees with Rossindi's viewpoint, which does seem quite reasonable.
You can't expect every place to become an economic center. In Gaspardi's view, a place is good enough if its people don't go hungry or cold.
Cocoa West Village roughly meets this standard.
In the original timeline, after Arlong took control of Cocoyasi Village, he forcibly collected protection money at a rate of 100,000 Berries per month for adults and 50,000 Berries per month for children.
Most people in the village could afford this amount, and even if Bellemere hadn't adopted Nami and Nochigo, she could have afforded her share.
At that time, Bellemere's main source of income was the orange grove.
The cost of living here is not high, and if there are no external influences, the people of Cocoaxi Village are self-sufficient.
Ah Long is still under Tiger's control, so it's impossible for him to be here right now.
At this time, only Rosinandi and Gaspardi were present; the other soldiers who had accompanied them had been left on the shore by Gaspardi.
The mere presence of the two of them here is easily explained by their identities; however, if more than twenty people appeared together, that would be troublesome.
More than twenty strong men suddenly appearing in an unfamiliar village are lucky if they aren't mistaken for bandits.
They hadn't encountered any locals yet, but Rosinandi suddenly nudged Gaspardi on the shoulder and then pointed to the side.
"They're really persistent; how come they're here too?"
"A lingering ghost?"
"You misheard me, I never said that word."
In the direction Rosinandi pointed, there was a three-story building that looked quite large. Most importantly, there was a wooden sign in front of the building with that distinctive gear-like mark on it.
"It looks like a library? I read in the newspaper before I went that their king seemed to advocate building a public library in the world."
"Yes, you're not mistaken. I just didn't expect it to have progressed to this level."
At the last World Conference, Oran formally proposed the library plan, but apart from the library in Frevans, which he had reviewed himself, Oran hadn't paid much attention to the libraries in other places.
There are many countries that oppose it, and many that support it. If even these small matters require his personal review, then Oran has nothing else to do.
Rosinandi felt that the other party was doing a good deed, but Gaspardi felt that the feeling was a bit strange.
Gaspard now feels like he's constantly under Piltover's surveillance, and can't shake off the other party no matter what.
"Hey kid, I've already told you, you can only look at the books here, you can't take them away. If you keep doing this, I'll permanently ban you from entering!"
As Gaspard and Rosinante were looking around the newly built library from outside, a man who looked like a librarian came out carrying a little girl with orange hair and tossed her aside in annoyance.
The administrators were employees recruited by Tesoro during his years of struggle in the East Blue. He had been developing in the East Blue for so many years, and he was not a lone commander; he could at least find a few usable people.
Although the library is free to read, the librarians are still managed by people from Piltover.
"You stingy old man! You can read books for free, why can't I take them with me?!"
"Precisely because reading books is free now, we absolutely cannot let you take them! Do you think these books fell from the sky?!"
The orange-haired girl who was thrown out is Nami. Although she is only seven years old this year, she is already very interested in things like drawing nautical charts and navigators.
However, talent alone is not enough for this kind of thing; you need sufficient opportunities to come into contact with it in order to have the possibility of learning it.
Previously, there was only one bookstore in Cocoa West Village, and it was the kind where borrowing wasn't allowed.
Although the library is free, it has strict time restrictions, which are not enough for Nami, so she always has the idea of taking some books with her.
"Uncle, please make an exception this time. I will take good care of the book. Once I've finished reading it, I will definitely return it to you intact."
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